By Lori EhdeLorna Harms won’t have to get up early, lift bulk bags of flour or plan menus for 500 anymore.Harms, 32-year head cook for Luverne Elementary School, retired this spring and said she’s already enjoying some time to herself.That means "sleeping in" until 7:30 instead of getting up at dawn to make breakfast for students."I got up at 5 every day for 21 years," she said. "That I won’t miss."Harms started in the kitchen of the former Luverne Elementary School (now City Centre Apartments) two hours per day helping with serving and clean up.In 1983, she started working as a full-time cook when Rikka Visker retired.During the 21 years that followed, Harms quickly learned that teamwork and clockwork are essential to running a kitchen that feeds nearly 550 kids every day."That’s what you do when you work in the kitchen — you watch the clock," she said. "It’s constant clockwork. It all goes by time — time to get things started, time to put things in the oven, time to set up the lines."Harms said it couldn’t be done without the teamwork of the three cooks — herself, Mary Smook and Cathy Mulder."The girls down there are fantastic," she said. "They’re good to work with. Everyone knows what to do, and they just do it."Five additional women come in two hours every day to help with serving and clean up. They are Mary Wacker, Clara Larson, Ethel Ossenfoort, Shirley DeBates and Gert Kooiker.She said she’ll miss working with the women who have become like family members, but she won’t miss the hard, physical work."It’s a fast-paced job with a lot of heavy lifting," said Harms, who is 59 years old. She said moving to the new elementary school in 1998 was like learning a new job."I would say that was one of the biggest challenges of my career," she said. "Everything was different … the set-up was different. It was all computerized."But teamwork, there, too, played a big role."We worked out a whole new system, and all of us worked together — me, Mary and Cathy — and it all fell into place."She said favorite menu items among the students were Cardinal Baskets (burgers and fries) and Wednesday morning sweet rolls."We always bake our bread from scratch," Harms said. She calculated that Wednesday sweet rolls and lunch buns alone require roughly 100 pounds of flour.Harms said she enjoyed the children and enjoyed being recognized by them outside of her role in the school kitchen."They’ll see me downtown and look at me kinda funny," she said. "Then you can see the wheels turning and they’ll say, ‘You’re the Lunch Lady!’"Harms’ retirement means her husband, Larry, will have more help with his custodial work at Grace Lutheran Church.Typically, the couple plans major annual projects for the summer months when Harms isn’t working at school, but now, she’ll be able to help out year-round.They have three grown children, Shelley Nattress, Wayne Harms and Randy Harms.She said she’s already spending more time with her grandchildren, and she’ll make a point to make time for herself."Right now, I’m looking at a lawn chair," she said. "I’m ready to kick back."